I wanted to put these together and make a big map but the PDFs are password protected. Scryingeye does not reply to support emails :(

A nice set of high-quality tiles for any fantasy or medieval RPG that uses miniatures. These tiles are very detailed and colorful, and don't have much of that cut-and-paste repetition you often see in other maps and tilesets. This set includes overlays for the interior of the building (in case PCs decide to investigate it) and for a ruined bridge (in case the PCs or NPCs have been a little destructive or careless).

A nice set of high-quality tiles for any fantasy or medieval RPG that uses miniatures. Use these maps for those obligatory times when your players all meet in a tavern. These tiles are very detailed and colorful, and don't have much of that cut-and-paste repetition you often see in other maps and tilesets. All parts of the tavern are included, even the basement and roof.

Fills a need I just couldn't find anywhere else. Well drawn with a good number of options; on the beach, at sea with and without sails, open water, etc.

What you expect from a free product. BUT it's well done. They took the time to do something that have a nice visual.

Type “M” Subsidized Merchant is the second spaceship battlemap from Scrying Eye Games’ new series Scrying Eye Shipyard and is compatible with the Traveller system. It is a very simple spaceship, and yet so perfect for its intended uses. Sometimes simplicity and ease-of-use easily overshadow complication and excessive use of detail.

There are two levels to this merchant ship, which make it versatile enough for several types of in-game uses. The lower level is dedicated to a very large cargo hold along with engines, fuel, and other utility-type things. Yes the cargo hold is just a large open area, but the engines and maneuvering drives are not. These are beautifully detailed and even include crew stations adding to the realism. There appears to be three doors into the hold; one in the rear and one on each side.

The top level is dedicated to staterooms and the bridge along with various other things (including weapons turrets on each side should defense be necessary). While the regular crew staterooms are included, there is a good number of “guest” staterooms should one need to ride with their cargo or the passengers are essentially the cargo. These rooms are fairly cut-and-paste but contain the details necessary to understand their purpose. There is also a cryogenic hold for those who plan on traveling very long distances.

Topping this off is a simple detail that makes it all perfect: the roof. The battlemap includes a decorated roof to finalize that bit of realism.

OVERALL

This series of spaceship battlemaps from Scrying Eye Games is perfect for the sci-fi game system that utilizes a standard 1″ x 1″ grid (or 25mm) (and even those that don’t use minis). Yes it’s simple, but can yield many possibilities. Especially for character’s looking to find a ride across the galaxy.

RATINGS

Publication Quality: 10 out of 10 Type “M” Subsidized Merchant has the same great layout and presentation as the Type “S” spaceship. The cargo hold and floor of the upper-level are essentially grids on their own so the 1″ x 1″ grid is overlaid perfectly. In addition, it is centered properly within the publication (considering page breaks) making the individual pages very easy to understand.

Visual Appeal: 10 out of 10 As stated, the spaceship is quite simple and uses a lot of cut-and-paste effects with the staterooms and the abundance of chairs and work spaces. However, they all fit together perfectly, there aren’t too much or too little, and contain just the right amount of details to be useful and easy to understand. And if you don’t quite understand something, there is an overview page with a designation for every room.

Desire to Use: 9 out of 10 As a merchant ship or any type of spaceship dedicated to transporting goods and/or people, Type “M” Subsidized Merchant is a perfect fit, or at least a very favorable one. However, it has very little use outside of this and lacks the stopping power should it be caught in a battle (it’s a transportation ship, it doesn’t need firepower). It’s versatile but limited in its use. Should you find yourself needing this type of spaceship, I definitely recommend it.

Overall: 10 out of 10 As a merchant-class, transportation-oriented spaceship, Type “M” Subsidized Merchant is perfect! It has plenty of space to hold your cargo, plenty of space to hold your personnel, a good looking bridge and crew stations, and there’s even a pair of guns should a small amount of trouble arise.

Originally Published at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2011/08/05/the-gazetteer-volume-i-issue-v/

This is a really fun idea for a map. This is a straight up circular watchtower and to be honest, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a map specifically for this location, even though it is a pretty standard thing to encounter in a fantasy campaign. The map has a grid for each level, which makes it perfect for miniatures usage. The first two pages of the map are for the ground floor and outside surrounding of the watch tower. The tower is for use on a body of water, so it’s also possible to have this map double as a lighthouse due to the location and layout of the map.

There are seven pieces to map besides the ground floor pieces, each with their own unique look, yet still keeping to the circular shape of the location. You can make the watchtower as high or as small as you would like thanks to the modular pieces and you can even have several pieces in play at once if your players are spread out through the location. My favorite aspect of the map is it really shows how hard fighting up a spiral or circular staircase can be and it’s not something that a lot of gamers or DMs think about unless they are actually shown what it would look like. This map will force even the most avid hack and slashers to think a little bit about strategy before trying to stab their way to the top of the tower.

There is an amazing amount of detail to this map and Scrying Eye games have thought of just about everything except for one of the two things most map makers forget: a place for cooking and a place for umm…what happens to the food after you’ve eaten it. It was really cool to see a table with a tea set and even a place for dinner, complete with a rolled napkin. I love it when map designers actually think of what a location would actually have in it and not just the bare bones layout. Modular Towers 3: Signal Towers is a wonderful map from beginning to end and now I have a map for that haunted lighthouse I’ve always wanted to try.

Oriignally Posted at: http://diehardgamefan.com/2011/08/01/the-gazetteer-volume-i-issue-i/

First off, this is a very large map if the page count didn’t clue you in. This contains both an interior and an exterior look at this ship, so you can really set up a tactical based adventure around this. Of course, your campaign will need to be in a modern or sci-fi setting since the ship is full of computers, guns, and other tech you wouldn’t find in a fantasy setting. The entire map is full color which the publisher admits will probably drain your printer cartridge due to the size and the fact it is “color-intensive.” Because of this, Scrying Eye Games suggests that you only print off the parts you will actually use. Still, I can’t imagine where you would only ever use a section of the map since it’s all a single gigantic ship.

There are actually three levels to the ship, but in flipping through the pages, there is no discernable difference between the lower interior and upper interior and because of this, people who aren’t used to print and putting together maps might mix up the pieces. In fact there’s no assembly guide, which really should be required for a map this side. With something like this, always assume your product is a gamer’s first or that they are very young, just in case. Instead, the only clue you get comes from the table of contents which gives a page count of what pieces go where. For example pages 4-11 make up the Interior Upper Deck while pages 12-16 make up the Interior Lower Deck. There’s just one problem. The table of contents in your PDF reader will say the exact opposite, It says pages 4-11 are the lower deck and 12-16 are the upper deck. So which is correct? I say go with the paper based ToC rather than the PDF version but the fact a typo/error of this size made it through production doesn’t assure me of quality control with this piece.

Visually the map is pretty good for the interior sections, but lacking in detail and a bit dull for the exterior. The last two pages of the map even have a guide to the different interior sections and what they represent. The interior has a lot of little touches that make the “Pretty Penny” feel lived in and like a real battleship, but the exterior is just a dull blue with no actual texture or detail. I was disappointed by the quality differences here.

It’s hard to recommend picking up the “Pretty Penny” unless you are specifically playing a Traveller campaign, so its geared for a very niche audience, but in a pinch it can work with a modern or sci-fi map as long as you’ve really tailored the adventure around this. The “Pretty Penny” could make a decent Spelljammer after all…

What you get is what you see in the preview. You get an image of an air/raft and nothing more. You get the same image 10 times. I don't understand why... I think they should have made the 10 images a bit different, so that you at least could select your favourite colour.

Anyway, the image is looking nice, and the style is the same as in the other (so far) two Traveller products from Scrying Eye Games. The best thing is that it is for free. So if you are using any of their other Traveller products, you should get this one as well. It will look nice parked on the cargo deck.

A well rendered product, and a nice variation on many of the previous versions of the venerable Air/Raft. It was very light on crunchy bits, and mostly was useful for a visual effect. As a free product I do value what I got, and I would look at other products from this creator. A nice addition would have been a profile view and/or different color variations to allow a GM to represent different factions if they use this in their game.

This is the second deck-plan of about 20 that they have planned to release. I hope they do the Shivva Patrol Frigate.

The scale is 25 mm/square. The side of a square is 5 ft. This fits a number of counters, card board heroes and miniatures nicely. But it doesn’t match the classic scale exactly (but close enough). It also makes the deck-plan of the ship quite large. The ship is fitted within 19 pages that you have to assemble yourself. It would have been nice if there was a hi-res image-file includes as well, so you could print it out on a large printer/plotter.

There are lots of details in the images. This is very nice compared to the standard classic deck-plans. Now you can see how everything will fit, and where all the rubbish will end up…

The need for deck-plans has always been there. In my group, and in other groups that I have played in, we have always used deck-plans. Even though there might not be any combat within the ship, it is always nice to see where your character lives and works. If there is combat within the ship, a deck-plan is a must.

Combat can be solved using standard traveller rules, or using special on-board rules like Snapshot.

Even though this is a very nice product, I will not use it. The reason for this is that my group is quite tainted by what the March Harrier from the Traveller Adventure looked like. The March Harrier is a type R. (The classic type M is a 600-ton Subsidized Liner.) There are a number of elevators in this ship. Where is the Launch? This is not the same ship. It doesn’t match the March Harrier. But for a new group it would probably be very nice to have this pretty deck-plan on their gaming table.

Type “S” Scout/Courier is the first spaceship battlemap from Scrying Eye Games’ new series Scrying Eye Shipyard and is compatible with the Traveller system. It is a fairly straight forward, beautifully detailed, and perfectly laid out spaceship that can easily be used for multiple system.

The details of the interior are crisp and clear and attention was paid to the grid by perfectly placing it so the central “walkway” lines up right where it needs to be. This ship accommodates four perfectly with seating in the command section along with four separate staterooms. Each necessary room is there and an overview pointing out the different rooms is included in the back. In addition to the detailed interior, an overlay of the exterior is included. Plus there is a civilian air raft and turret controls. It’s not very big but it truly is designed perfectly.

OVERALL

If Type “S” Scout/Courier is any indication of future battlemaps in this series, then I truly look forward to future releases. While it’s designed for use with Traveller, the standard 1″ x 1″ grid (or 25mm) makes it usable with many other systems.

RATINGS

Publication Quality: 10 out of 10 This battlemap is laid out perfectly and includes the interior, exterior, and overview. One key item to the layout is how well the grid is laid over the actual interior details – it matches perfectly.

Visual Appeal: 10 out of 10 Type “S” Scout/Courier is visually stunning with not only excellent details but everything placed in a logical location making the entire ship even more stunning to look at.

Desire to Use: 10 out of 10 This spaceship is very valuable for in-game use in Traveller and other systems that utilize a 1″ x 1″ grid like Savage Worlds or even Dark Heresy. The only catch is that it’s designed for four characters to use, but this could easily be worked around. It truly has a variety of uses within almost any sci-fi game system.

Overall: 10 out of 10 Type “S” Scout/Courier is an excellent battlemap for anyone looking to add a small spaceship to their adventure or campaign. Regardless if you’re using miniatures or not, you can use this to explain the action going on and allow the PCs to interact with their surroundings. I definitely recommend using this.

I was not yet a teenager when I watched the first moon landing on TV. Like many of my generation I was simply possessed with idea of spaceflight. When having to wear glasses put paid to my childhood aspiration of being an astronaut I looked forward to the space tourism we were being guaranteed. Nowadays, of course, I have to accept that short of someone doing something very suddenly with carbon nanotubes and space elevators, maps like "IISS Dreamcatcher" are the closest I'll ever get to leaving Earth.

This map is teaming with loads more adventure potential than that tourist flight I anticipated rescuing in Thunderbirds style ever had. I can see in the bridge that one of the consoles is glowing a different color to the others. Definitely a sign that it is shortly, at a most inopportune time, going to go on the blink. Some of the odd hazard checked floor panels might be lifted and someone spill their coffee, or worse fall in and break something. Lord knows what will happen if there's a bureaucrat around when that happens, you think safety regulations are bad enough in c21? Wait a few hundred years. The Captain won't like having to bribe his way out of that. And should you really be leaving blasters out in your cabin when that rich dilettante passenger the Cap' had to take on board is looking strung out and withdrawn? On the other hand the drone bay has some spare room; customs won't notice the odd bottle going planet side... will they?

There are minor irritations - at the time of this review there was no 3 feet to an inch hex version of this map for my GURPS Traveller game. There is no exterior underside in the map - forgetting that in space there is no upside down. Despite this the map is good quality and well detailed. At this price if you have a Traveller game that uses 5 feet to one inch scale you can't afford not to buy this map on the off chance you need a Scout/Courier map for those times when, as always, your players drive a truck through your session planning.

Plus, let's face it, the IISS Dreamcatcher and your imagination represents a better class of space travel than you're likely to see in your lifetime - which undoubtedly will be more cramped than tourist class, full of more screaming kids and babies and have floating globules of unidentified biological matter. Need I say more? Take the sane alternative.

A nicely done floor plan with a lot of thought on where everything in the ship goes

Loved it and used some of the ideas when making my own floor plans

Good value for money ($3 USD).

Absolutely essential floor plan for any Traveller game (old and new). The inside of an S-Scout never looked so good.

Definitely for fans of the Millennium Falcon and Firefly-class Serenity, who like their starships dingy and cluttered!

Summary: Useful eye-candy for space navy heads with minis!

Ace. Fire up the jump drive!

-Bb- http:/bit.ly/rpgblog